Archive for the ‘Noam Chomsky’ Category

I would like to touch base with the idea of how we choose to communicate with each other and our general topics of interest. Basically, what happens here is that we take certain ideas that the “Elite” class has established for us and we base our thoughts and opinions on that. Therefore, we don’t have much in the way of freedom of thoughts. For example, we may discuss an episode of “Lost” that premiered last night or some other program that was on Television the night before. We basically are starting to find more in common with each other based on external media forces we all tend to consume. This just further amplifying the effect of the media on us, it extends towards our personal lives as well or what we choose to talk about when we interact with others.

According to the most quoted living theorist, Noam Chomsky, we speaks of how the media enacts a type of propaganda on the rest of society. This propaganda is enacted by the “Elite Class” as I mentioned before. The majority of people in society fit under the category of “mass opinion.” However, before the Elite reach us, they must go through a “Mass Media Filter.” If I were to generally lay this out in a diagram it would look like this:

Elite——–>Mass Media Filter———> Mass (public) Opinion

Therefore the idea I’m getting at, is that the way we think, our opinions are very much shaped by the Elite class in society. Our thoughts are losing their distinctness and we are slowly losing our individuality, as we are forced in a unitary mode of thinking, thoughts and ideas.

Chomsky looks at the corporate world through the lens of the “economic” point of view. The main group of people that are effected are called the “Unwashed class”, which generally means the working class. With regards to the media, they are mainly subjected to distraction and entertainment. So basically they are distracted from the main issues in the media, unaware that they are being manipulated by this idea of propaganda that Chomsky proposes.

Most of us are unaware of how manipulated we truly are and Chomsky was one of the theorists that looked more at media and the economic sphere. Therefore, those with wealth are the few “Elites” in society, the rest of us are just followers of what ever they decide to put forth in society.